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Electrical stimulation of existing three-dimensional bioprinted tissues to alter tissue activities is typically associated with wired delivery, invasive electrode placement, and potential cell damage, minimizing its efficacy in cardiac modulation. Here, we report an optoelectronically active scaffold based on printed gelatin methacryloyl embedded with micro-solar cells, seeded with cardiomyocytes to form light-stimulable tissues. This enables untethered, noninvasive, and damage-free optoelectronic stimulation–induced modulation of cardiac beating behaviors without needing wires or genetic modifications to the tissue solely with light. Pulsed light stimulation of human cardiomyocytes showed that the optoelectronically active scaffold could increase their beating rates (>40%), maintain high cell viability under light stimulation (>96%), and negligibly affect the electrocardiogram morphology. The seeded scaffolds, termed optoelectronically active tissues, were able to successfully accelerate heart beating in vivo in rats. Our work demonstrates a viable wireless, printable, and optically controllable tissue, suggesting a transformative step in future therapy of electrically active tissues/organs. 

Conventional bulky and rigid electronics prevents compliant interfacing with soft human skin for health monitoring and human-machine interaction, due to the incompatible mechanical characteristics. To overcome the limitations, soft skin-mountable electronics with superior mechanical softness, flexibility, and stretchability provides an effective platform for intimate interaction with humans. In addition, soft electronics offers comfortability when worn on the soft, curvilinear, and dynamic human skin. In this review, recent advances in soft electronics as health monitors and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are briefly discussed. Strategies to achieve softness in soft electronics including structural designs, material innovations, and approaches to optimize the interface between human skin and soft electronics are briefly reviewed. Characteristics and performances of soft electronic devices for health monitoring, including temperature sensors, pressure sensors for pulse monitoring, pulse oximeters, electrophysiological sensors, and sweat sensors, exemplify their wide range of utility. Furthermore, we review the soft devices for prosthetic limb, household object, mobile machine, and virtual object control to highlight the current and potential implementations of soft electronics for a broad range of HMI applications. This review concludes with a discussion on the current limitations and future opportunities of soft skin-mountable electronics.